This was my Dad's favorite cornbread meal. It was satisfying all by itself, or with a bowl of pinto beans. We often ate it that way, especially once the days turn cold, it keeps ya warm. The cracklins are soft and yummy, never tooth-breakin' hard. The secret is to soak the cracklins overnight.

Ingredients:

1 to 2 cups soaked Cracklins (QTY to preferences)

1 1/2 to 2 cups Plain Yellow Cornmeal

3 to 4 tablespoons cool Bacon Drippings

1/2 cup All Purpose Flour

2 slightly beaten Eggs (best flavor is brown eggs)

1 tablespoon Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda (Omit if not using buttermilk or sourmilk).

1 cup Cultured Buttermilk or Sourmilk

1/2 tsp Salt (1 tsp if cracklins aren't salted heavily)

**Optional: 1/2 cup additional all purpose flour.

Soak cracklins in some water, milk or broth in the fridge overnight to soften them. Next day, drain cracklins, reserve the liquid they soaked in, toss drained cracklins in flour, stir to coat them, set aside. Tossing them in flour helps them stay suspended in the batter, instead of sinking to the bottom to burn.

Heat oven to 425°f to 450°f.

Well grease the insides of an iron skillet with bacon grease, place in oven till it's smoking hot.

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

Mix all the wet ingredients together well in a separate bowl, add the cool bacon drippings. Fold in the soaked, flour-coated cracklins last, don't stir them too much.

Then pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mix. Work quick, as the leavening is now activated, don't get busy with something else before getting it into the oven.

If the batter is on the dry side, pour in some of the liquid the cracklins soaked in, or pork stock, sour milk, buttermilk, water or canned evaporated milk. The batter needs to be the consistency of cake batter. If using buttermilk, add a half teaspoon baking soda or it won't rise at all.

ALTERNATIVE: use the liquid the cracklins soaked in in place of the milks, you can use only water or broth.

Carefully take skillet from oven, pour the batter in, give the skillet a quick shake to settle the batter, then return skillet to oven and bake at 425°f to 450°f until the top has lightly browned, and the edges have browned and pulled away from the skillet. If it cracks across the top, as well as browned and pulled away from the skillet, then it's perfectly done.

This method works better than a set time to bake, as a very humid day will need longer to get fully cooked. (think how humid it is living near a river bottom or near the wetlands). A low humidity day it won't need as much time to get crispy and done.

Of course you could use the clean-toothpick test, but it won't be a happy occasion if a cracklin is accidentally yanked out, and tears up that nicely browned top. At least you could hide the evidence by eating the yoinked cracklin.

I stuck to the lightly browned top, edges-pulled-away and browned method to produce dependable results.

This is the very best thing to warm up with on a cold morning when snowed or iced in. Some hot coffee and this, and the world is spinning just all-right!

Dad taught me how to make this his way. Momma hugely goofed it by not soaking the cracklins first, with tooth breaker results.

This was how Dad's Cajun oldfolks taught him to make it in the early 1900's when he was a boy in Louisiana. Dates at least from the late 1800's.

There's occasions I've run out of cracklins and substituted chicharrones or fried pork rinds. Be sure to soak them first. Soak them at least a couple of hours before mixing into the batter, or overnight, as with the cracklins.

Yes, some folks swear there simply must be sugar in cornbread, I know. But this is Texan-Cajun in origin. There's no sugar in most southern cornbreads. They tend to be strictly a savory cornbread, not usually sweet at all. We call the sweetened cornbreads corncakes, corn muffins or a form of honey bread.

All purpose flour is what I use. A half cup could be added to the dry ingredients if you like.

**Coarse cornmeal will make for a coarsely textured cornbread. Consider using the finer ground cornmeals if you'd like a finer texture. That's where the added flour helps make the texture more fine. But I tend to use fine ground cornmeal to make stuff mostly.